Over the years i've had a couple of conversations with vendors and/or artists abt NYCC. It usually starts off with me asking if they're going to nycc. Then the conversation goes to the cost of having a booth at nycc- especially a retail booth with a large amt of product.
Apparently, they're only a few loading docks so it takes a long time to deliver product to the venue. then it's rather expensive to get it to the booth. I've also heard the cost to drop power into a booth is not included at nycc unlike at sdcc. when i spoke with a vendor 2 years ago it was $150 (iirc)
i also spoke with an artist who had sm amt of product. they spoke of having to climb a set or two of stairs with all their boxes. They don't turn on the escalators until the venue is open.
just to stress, at no point did anyone talk abt the actual cost of the booth charged by reedpop- *that was not* the focus, it was the incidentals like getting stuff to & from their booths that folks spoke abt